garden amphibian activity SW today

[Ben Rigsby]

hi folks,

wet warm day.
30 or so frogs about here (none in amplexus yet) but earlier i saw a smooth newt male fanning for the first time this year.
also a couple of pregnant GCN.

GLOS

whats happening where YOU are?

cheers,

ben

[toadpole]

Hi Ben well i have a large female and 2 male frogs all found in the rain on my front lawn 4 days ago which i caught and popped in my pond one of the males and the female have been in Amplexus for the last 2 days ...so things going well !! last night never saw any more frogs about as it turned rather cold and no rain (that allways seems to activate them ) but i think tonight may see things hotting up a bit and yesterday when i was out on my front lawn throwing some food out for the crows i glanced into one of the water bowls i leave out for my foxes and badgers and there was a small newt swimming around ...so he is safely in my pond now too !! so my big bucket is at the ready as the frogs emerge from our nearby woodland and allways travel directly towards the strreetlight which is situated on my lawn ...so its very easy to see them hopping across and of course many of them move onwards to the road ...its not a main road but quite a few got run over last year and so i try to get them to safety as well as i can ....and sadly my neighbours who had a very large and successful pond filled it in last summer as they had a baby ...and many of the frogs headed to the gap under their fence as it was the nearest pond to get too ....so i feel quite sad for the ones that turn up there this year ....just read my post back to chack for spellings and realised you wanted info from the SW and not the SE sorry but i will post it anyway ...Marion

[Ben Rigsby]

hi toadpole

thanks for posting.

is your garden "open plan" then?
if so, i salute you.
well done!

who needs barriers?
not me. we are all human beings. i dont want to block neighbours out physically.

and not wildlife either - they need maximum habitat.

id rather have no fencing at all - i know where my garden ends so i dont need anything to delineate the boundary.
neither me nor the neighbours have dogs to keep in . so it seems unnecessary - we are friends.
even if we hated each other, i wouldnt want a fence.

barriers between people/wildlife DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!

let in the light!

and help our native species go; UP! UP! UP!





but my neighbours arent so keen.


so that being the case, instead, i leave gaps underneath the fence to allow amphibians etc to spread and thrive!



LONG LIVE GARDEN HABITAT!


cheers, ben

[toadpole]

HI Ben thanks for the reply ...i have an enclosed back garden fully fenced in as i have 2 rabbits that have the full run of the garden weather permitting that is where all my main birdfeeding goes on and where my small pond is situated (it has a trellis fence surrounding it so the rabbits dont take a quick dip!!) out the front of my house is a small lawn which is all open to any wildlife that chooses to wander accross it I have a street-light right on the edge of my lawn so it lights it up beautifully for me :...i keep my kitchen blinds open a foot every night as i watch the wildlife on it till the early hours most nights .....i gave up any weed control and all the usual stuff you get for lawns as about 4 years ago when a Badger turned up one night and was eating the leftover bird seed i had put on the footpath for the chaffinches that were in my neighbours beech hedge ...i nearly passed out with the shock and my daughter would not believe me so this started the nightly watching of my front lawn ) then 3 weeks later i saw him again and this time my daughter saw him too ...and i have fed him ever since ...we have allways had foxes around here and of course they soon caught on to the Badgers food supply ...well last yr there were 6 cubs born and the 2 vixens brought them to my lawn every night ...oh they were so sweet ..it was wonderful to be able to watch them clearly with the aid of my street-light ..so i started putting a few extra bits out for them too !!! i have never tried to tame them they are very wary of everything so thats fantastic .....as they got bigger i reduced the food as they were beginning to rely on my food till i was only scattering a few peanuts for my Badger ...then last december when we had the big snow they were all looking very desperate and i noticed that 2 of them had got really bad mangeso i started the nightly feeding to get them to a routine and now i am in the process of medicating them with homeopathic drops ...it is costing me a fortune but i cant let them suffer .....it has been 4 weeks now and one of the bad ones seems to be responding well and the worst of the lot (it had affected one of his legs and he could not walk on it at all)can at least use his leg and is running like his brothers and sisters ...but the others pick on him and take his food ..so its all a bit of a battle to hide the food all around so they all get a chance to grab something with the drops on and swallow their quota ...i have hedgehogs too ..had 3 last year ...all this on a lawn 12x12 amazing my neighbours all know that i am nutts about my wildlife and they enjoy it all too (especially the badger) i had to laugh last year when my neibour tony came and knocked on my door to ''ask'' my permission to take some pics of the badger ....well i AM VERY protective of it all ...but it did make me smile take care and enjoy your wildlife Marion